Dinosaur bones 'used as medicine'Bones on display at the museumSome bones are on display at a museum in Henan provinceVillagers in central China have been using dinosaur bones as medicine - thinking they were from dragons.

These bones have been dug up, then boiled in soup or ground down to make traditional medicines for decades.

The news emerged this week when scientists displayed some excavated bones at a museum in Henan Province.

"[People] believed that the 'dragon bones' were from dragons flying in the sky," one Chinese scientist told AP news agency.

These 'dragon bones', found in Henan's Ruyang County, were sold for about 4 yuan (50 cents) per kilogram.

"Local people used the bones as medicine to treat conditions such as dizziness and leg cramps," said Zhang Xinliao from Henan Geology Museum.

They were also made into a paste and applied to fractures and other injuries.

Dinosaur bones (file image)Scientists said villagers had been using dinosaur bones for years

"Some locals even made a business out of collecting the bones. One had collected up to 8,000 kg," Mr Zhang added.

Bones displayed this week at the museum were from an 18m-long plant-eating dinosaur.

These dinosaurs are 85 to 100 million years old.

Scientists have spent the last two years unearthing and cleaning the bones, which belonged to Asia's heaviest dinosaur.

Mr Zhang said the museum planned to put them together and display them later this year.

I tend to write several entries on a subject and although admittedly they are of variable quality by following the topic keys then one should get a fairly complete view of what I think on the issue. There's a lot of good information buried here particularly on some obscure subjects related to assisting newly arrived refugees, particularly from Burma. These subjects include furniture donation issues, driver education and even domestic violence. If these issues interest you, follow the internal links, do searches, there's a lot here and I've found that often people search on a subject using google, I've written an answer, but the search engines sent them to some other entry where I discussed only a small part of the issue. So if a subject that interests you has a truly mediocre entry there is probably a good one hidden away as well on different aspects of the same subject You can't get a full picture on the issues covered in this blog by reading just one entry. it wasn't written that way. If you still don't see what you want, feel free to drop me an e-mail. Thank you.

About Me

Journalist, educator, and low level Asian history scholar who dabbles in fiction. Peter Huston is the author of several books, including Scams from the Great Beyond, Tong, Gangs, and Triads,, and the novel, Excess Emotional Baggage.
Interests include :
1) Internatinal Education and Teaching English as a Second or other Language,
2)refugee concerns and refugee resettlement,
3)self defense and martial arts,
4) Asian culture and history,
5) censorship controversies
6) the skeptical examination of paranormal and pseudo-scientific claims.
Education includes a master's degree in East Asian Studies from Cornell and a second master's degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from the University at Albany, party of the New York State SUNY system.
I am not the sailing guy, sports betting guy or the attorney guy. These people who use the name Peter Huston are, presumably, impostors. I am the real
Peter Huston.